A Hot Pace!

We’ve had tremendous home and away support – they’ve got right behind the team in every single game"

Kenny Jackett

Kenny Jackett predicted before the season started that there would be a hot pace set at the top of Sky Bet League One – and he hasn’t been proved wrong.

Leyton Orient’s victory at Brentford on Monday continued their 100 per cent start with eight wins from eight, meaning Peterborough and Wolves’ tallies of 19 points is only good enough for second and third places respectively.

There are also teams below who have made impressive starts, backing up Jackett’s previous suggestion that it takes a whole lot of points to gain promotion to the Championship.

He says: “It’s a good league and the table is taking shape – as well as the top two Rotherham and Bradford have had good starts.

“Then just below that, Brentford are well fancied after what they did last season – they came very close and probably should have got promotion.

“And if you look at the amount of players Brentford have taken since the summer – they have probably signed eight players on top of a squad that did well last season.

“To my knowledge, they haven’t sold any players or lost any of their better players anyway.

“So the table is taking shape and you can see the ones that are going to be our competitors.

“It doesn’t put an added pressure or change things for us – our aim is to try to get promoted.

“We’re looking to do that and that’s been our aim through a high number of changes – from the summer, that’s what we’ve wanted to do.

“We’ve bedded the side down and we’re seeing which young players do it, which are for now, which are for tomorrow, what is their development – that’s the fantastic opportunity that we have here now.”

Sheffield United might have been expected to be up among the front-runners having reached the play-offs for the last two seasons, but currently find themselves at the opposite end of the table.

But Jackett does not think they will be there for long.

“It’s very early days and they’ve got some good players,” he said.

“The one thing you will see on Saturday is the support they generate and the size of their club because they’re a very big club, and that won’t cease.

“I’m sure they’ll be disappointed with their start, but there are over 100 points to compete for, so anything is still possible.

“So it’s early in the season. You would prefer to be doing well, because it gives you optimism and hopefully gives your players confidence, but it’s not to say with over 100 points to play for that you can’t get it right and have a good season.

“They have been very close to going up.

“A couple of years ago, the Chad Evans court case perhaps made a big difference.

“Sheffield Wednesday went up in their place, just at the end of the season after Sheffield United had been setting the pace for most of the season.

“That was a fantastic opportunity and I felt for Danny Wilson at that time.”

“They are a genuinely big club and their expectation level is big.

“And looking what’s happened to them in the last couple of years shows you how hard it is to get out of this division.”

Jackett cites the Blades as a club with a similar fanbase and expectation to Wolves, and re-iterated his appreciation of the support of the Molineux faithful so far this season.

“This is their third season at League One level, but they’re a big club which is well supported and they will be well backed on Saturday,” he said.

“You’re probably looking at the two biggest clubs in terms of support in League One this season.

“We’ve had tremendous home and away support – they’ve got right behind the team in every single game.

“I’m pleased with the wins record and some optimism when you’re looking at the table that we can compete going forwards now.

“We want to keep getting performances and the right results to encourage supporters to keep coming to make them think we can be successful in the future.

“The backing both home and away has been tremendous for the players and it’s much appreciated.”